Make your patients your marketing team
The best marketing, and the best subsequent customer experience, generate not just customer satisfaction, but actual customer loyalty. Brands like Apple and Harley Davidson have not just customers, but evangelists, spreading the word.
Effective marketing and superior customer service will put your patients to work for you, and bring you referrals like crazy. So will giving patients a referral thank-you gift. If you start a referral incentive program like the one below, make sure to send an e-mail or postcard to all your patients letting them know.
Put this language on the back of your business card:
New Patient Offer
Get a free $25 Visa Gift Card with your first paid appointment.
Tell us who sent you, and they’ll get one too!
I was referred by: _____________________
Some patients really get into it. I’ve see a few offices have contests for their patients to see who can give the most referrrals in six months or a year. Prizes are either a bigger gift card, or an electronic item like an i-pod or flat-screen tv.
Make sure that your state board has no restrictions about rewarding people for referrrals. Most don’t, but you should check first.
